What does the name Antarctica mean: myths and reality

The two most mysterious continents of our planet - the Arctic and the Antarctic - continue to bring surprises to scientists and researchers. Beginning with paleontological remains and ending with traces of meteorite impacts in the distant past. But what does the name of Antarctica mean and where did it come from, do not everyone know.

A bit of mythology

What the name of Antarctica means, briefly fails to answer. The name is mythologized by ancient Greek explorers. Myth tells how the main god of ancient Greek mythology fell in love with the nymph Callisto. Other gods, envying their love, turned a nymph into a bear. But before that she had a son, Arkada. The son grew up and on the hunt took aim at the bear, which was his mother. Zeus saved them both, turning into constellations - the Great and the Little Bear. These are the constellations and today are the main guiding points for travelers.

Some philology

Literally the word is translated from ancient Greek as "opposite the bear". Ancient Greek cartographers called the northern Arctic ice continent "arktikos" in honor of the constellation of the Great Bear, which was the main landmark in the sea trips. Opposite to the northern mainland received the prefix "ant" - "opposite". Thus, what is the name of Antarctica, becomes clear to everyone.

A bit of history

As early as 350 BC, in his work "Meteorology", the Greek naturalist and philosopher Aristotle mentioned the existence of the "Antarctic region". A geographer and cartographer of Ancient Greece II century AD Martin Tire already designated this region on maps. Writers of Ancient Greece I-II century AD Guy Julius Gigin and Apuleius introduced the mythological name of the South Pole of the Poles antarcticus, precisely in the sense of the opposite of the North. This designation of the southern continent became the basis of the modern name pôle antarctique, fixed in the Old French documents of 1270 and passed into tracts of the Englishman Jeffrey Chaucer in 1391.

Antarctic variations

"Against the north" for a long time called the most diverse regions. So, in the 16th century in Brazil, the French colony was called Antarctic France. Under the lands, which meant the name of the mainland Antarctica, understood all the island territories of the extreme south. The term "Antarctica" was used in the cartography of the Middle Ages and denoted the southern part of the planet.

How Antarctica was called Antarctica

Officially it is believed that the name was fixed to the mainland thanks to a cartographer from Scotland to John George Bartholomew. It was he who in the 90s of the XIX century. So called the land of the south of the planet, which was designated as Antarctica.

By the way, its discoverers FF Bellingshausen and MP Lazarev in 1820 called the open land "the ice continent." And Charles Wilks, navigator and leader of many expeditions of the US Navy, in 1840 called these lands the Antarctic continent.

But no matter how we call the southernmost continent of the planet and in whatever way explain what the name "Antarctica" means, its riddles do not end. New research methods, space imagery and radiation typing lead us to new clues to the secrets of the amazing ice continent.